.\" Copyright (c) 2006 John Kasunich
.\"                (jmkasunich AT users DOT sourceforge DOT net)
.\"
.\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or
.\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
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.\" GNU General Public License for more details.
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.TH SAMPLER "9"  "2006-11-18" "LinuxCNC Documentation" "HAL User's Manual"
.SH NAME
sampler \- sample data from HAL in real time
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B loadrt sampler
.BI depth= depth1[,depth2...]
.BI cfg= string1[,string2...]

.SH DESCRIPTION
.B sampler
and
.BR halsampler (1)
are used together to sample HAL data in real time and store it in a file.
.B sampler
is a realtime HAL component that exports HAL pins and creates a FIFO in shared memory.  It then begins sampling data from the HAL and storing it to the FIFO.
.B halsampler
is a user space program that copies data from the FIFO to stdout, where it can
be redirected to a file or piped to some other program.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.BI depth= depth1[,depth2...]
sets the depth of the realtime->user FIFO that
.B sampler
creates to buffer the realtime data.  Multiple values of
.I depth
(separated by commas) can be specified if you need more than one FIFO
(for example if you want to sample data from two different realtime threads).
.TP
.BI cfg= string1[,string2...]
defines the set of HAL pins that
.B sampler
exports and later samples data from.  One 
.I string
must be supplied for each FIFO, separated by commas.
.B sampler
exports one pin for each character in
.I string.
Legal characters are:
.IP "" 7
.B F, f
(float pin)
.IP "" 7
.B B, b
(bit pin)
.IP "" 7
.B S, s
(s32 pin)
.IP "" 7
.B U, u
(u32 pin)

.SH FUNCTIONS
.TP
.BI sampler. N
One function is created per FIFO, numbered from zero.

.SH PINS
.TP
\fBsampler.\fIN\fB.pin.\fIM\fR input
Pin for the data that will wind up in column
.I M
of FIFO
.I N
(and in column
.I M
of the output file).  The pin type depends on the config string.
.TP
\fBsampler.\fIN\fB.curr\-depth\fR s32 output
Current number of samples in the FIFO.  When this reaches
.I depth
new data will begin overwriting old data, and some samples
will be lost.
.TP
\fBsampler.\fIN\fB.full\fR bit output
TRUE when the FIFO
.I N
is full, FALSE when there is room for another sample.
.TP
\fBsampler.\fIN\fB.enable\fR bit input
When TRUE, samples are captured and placed in FIFO \fIN\fR,
when FALSE, no samples are acquired.  Defaults to TRUE.

.SH PARAMETERS
.TP
\fBsampler.\fIN\fB.overruns\fR s32 read/write
The number of times that
.B sampler
has tried to write data to the HAL pins but found no room in the FIFO.  It increments whenever
.B full
is true, and can be reset by the
.B setp
command.

.TP
\fBsampler.\fIN\fB.sample\-num\fR s32 read/write
A number that identifies the sample.  It is automatically incremented for each
sample, and can be reset using the
.B setp
command.  The sample number can optionally be printed in the first column of the output from
.BR halsampler ,
using the
.I \-t
option. (see
.BR "man 1 halsampler" )

.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR halsampler (1)
.BR streamer (9)
.BR halstreamer (1)

.SH HISTORY

.SH BUGS

.SH AUTHOR
Original version by John Kasunich, as part of the LinuxCNC
project.  Improvements by several other members of
the LinuxCNC development team.
.SH REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to jmkasunich AT users DOT sourceforge DOT net
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2006 John Kasunich.
.br
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
